Admittedly, until Rise Of The Tyrant came out, nothing Arch Enemy had to offer studio-wise had impressed me all that much. That being said, after seeing them live twice and being thoroughly blown away by the ferocity of those performances the thought of a nice double-disc live album was extremely attractive.

When listening to the previously mentioned album, Rise Of The Tyrant, you can tell some of these songs were written purely for a live setting. Kicking off with the brand-new "Blood On Your Hands" was a perfect choice, the song seems to be built for the sake of creating a perfect intro. The thing that's great about the album is the fact that it is recorded in Japan. Now location may seem irrelevant when it comes to a live album, but one thing I have noticed that is different from European or North American recorded live albums is that the crowd noise seems less frantic, and more controlled. The crowd comes through a lot clearer and almost more disciplined than that of North American or European crowds - everyone chanting along in perfect unison as if the crowd studied the set list before hand. The audience really adds to this album instead of interfering in the music with garbled cheering as I've heard on so many other live albums - this could also be attributed to the flawless mixing though. As with many live albums being released these days, it's a double disc, meaning we get all the added in interludes, intros, extended solos, and stage banter - which is a necessity if you want to get as close to the concert experience as possible.